Many oil or gas wells produce, simultaneously with the desired hydrocarbon fluid, undesired waste components such as production water, H.sub.2 S and CO.sub.2. In the case of production water, the ratio of produced water/hydrocarbon fluid of most wells increases during the lifetime of the well. This phenomenon is due to the fact that for most hydrocarbon reservoirs in the earth formation the oil layer is located on top of a layer of water of which the level increases as the reservoir is depleted due to continued oil production. The produced water is generally separated from the oil using suitable separating means, for example settling tanks.
Apart from the produced water waste components like H.sub.2 S and CO.sub.2 are also produced in substantial amounts as these gases are dissolved in the produced oil and water. These components cause undesired environmental pollution if not adequately removed from the hydrocarbon fluid. It is therefore common technology to remove such waste components, for example using a regenerative treatment process. Such process requires dedicated process equipment downstream the wellbore at surface, which equipment is generally expensive and adds to the overall cost of the hydrocarbon production operation.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved method of reducing an amount of a waste component present in a hydrocarbon fluid in a stream of fluid produced from an earth formation, which method requires less dedicated process equipment.